The No. 12 North Carolina baseball team defeated Kentucky, 3-1, in its season opener at Boshamer Stadium on Friday.
What happened?
Junior pitcher and preseason All-American J.B. Bukauskas started on the bump for the Tar Heels (1-0), but he didn't look like his old self early on.
His first pitch of the day was slapped back up the middle by Kentucky's Zach Reks. He gave up another hit two batters later, but was able to work out of trouble to escape the inning unscathed.
Bukauskas didn't run into much trouble over the next three innings, but his pitch count continued to rise as he battled Wildcat (0-1) hitters in long counts most of the day.
The North Carolina offense did its part to take some of the pressure of Bukauskas early on. After Brian Miller and Michael Busch reached on singles in the top of the first, junior infielder Zack Gahagan hit a single the other way to plate a run.
Two innings later, Gahagan delivered again, singling to right and scoring Logan Warmoth to give UNC a 2-0 lead. Warmoth joined in in the next frame, singling to left and scoring Roberts from second to move the lead to 3-0.
From there, Bukauskas settled in and there was little the Wildcats could do to climb back in the game. The junior didn't give up another hit after allowing a single in the second inning. He exited after six innings and gave the UNC bullpen plenty of room for error.
